⁵ “Look among the nations and see;
    be astonished and astounded.
For a work is about to be done in your days
    that you will not believe if it is told.
⁶ For look! I am raising up the Chaldeans,
    the bitter and impetuous nation,
the one who walks through the spacious places of earth
    to take possession of dwellings not belonging to it.^[a]
7 They^[b] are dreadful and awesome;
    their^[c] justice and their^[d] dignity proceed from themselves.^[e]
8 Their^[f] horses are more swift than leopards;
    they are more menacing than wolves at dusk.
Their^[g] horsemen gallop; their^[h] horsemen come from afar;
    they fly like an eagle that is swift to devour.
⁹ All of them^[i] come for violence,
    their faces pressing forward.
    They gather captives like the sand.
¹⁰ And they themselves scoff at kings
    and rulers are a joke to them.
They laugh at every fortification,
    and they heap up earth and take it.
¹¹ Then they sweep like the wind and pass on;
    they become guilty, whose might is their^[j] god!”